The library may be one of the earliest buildings developed by civilization. Human beings are distinct from other primates (and most other lifeforms) in the creation of external archives of cultural memory, and for the purposes of conveying this information to subsequent generations, for the propagation of the species. The libraries have burned, such as throughout the history of Old Earth, but they have attained their zenith with the creation of Deep Memory. Deep Memory is, in the final analysis, a library. But unlike previous libraries, it can do more than simply archive a thought. Deep Memory can provide an experience of the cultural context as well. What meaning is there in reading a play of Shakespeare, if the text refers to events or people unknown to the reader? Deep Memory can provide that, instantly, giving the patron full access to a rich, reconstructed cultural heritage of Earth.

Early colonists brought massive digitized libraries of text and image with them - data storage being relatively lightweight and of high importance to most Seeding missions. In time, it was observed that of all the content created by humanity, a huge proportion was meta-commentary: reflection on work prepared by others. Taken as a whole, the meta-commentary provides a snapshot into the time in which it was written.

Deep Memory is a system that links the entire corpus and its metacommentary, extrapolates on the social conditions at the time the works were written, and then creates brain maps which can simulate the period in question. When a patron accesses Deep Memory, they can access a highly plausible and accurate simulacrum of the original creation of the work. One can, for example, see Shakespeare's plays performed in a Globe Theater, by the original actors. One can listen to blind Homer recite the Iliad in the original Greek, understand him, and appreciate the beauty of the work without the degradation of time and translation. One can experience a videogame of Civilization, on a personal computer, at 4 o'clock in the morning. Deep Memory provides context and depth of understanding that is the work of centuries of human development, and which was previously only accessible to experts.

The result has been a flourishing of the arts and culture, and a real understanding of the developmental arc of human history. One can observe the eruption of Vesuvius with Pliny in the morning, take lunch on the banks of the river with Mole and Rat, spend the afternoon listening to the discourse of Paul of Tarsus, and end the night listening to the ragas. How much more we understand the contributions of arts and letters, now that we can experience them firsthand! One is torn between awe, and deep sadness for our ancestors, who failed to understand the light they shed with the lamp of culture.